Internet Marketing Hints And Tips » affiliate

Generate Traffic and Affiliate Sales with Free Viral Reports

Gary Knox — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:26:35 +0000

Did you know that the free viral report is quite possibly the most deadly weapon in an affiliate marketer’s arsenal?

It allows him or her to quickly multiply his or her efforts while slashing down on marketing costs. All the marketer has to do is develop a viral report for little or no cost, embed an affiliate link in said report, and then find various avenues of distribution that will ensure that the report is perpetuated as far as possible – from group to group to group.

Now, with this being said, when it comes to developing free viral reports, a considerable amount of precise calculation and back-end system setup is needed. Simply jotting down garbage, tossing in an affiliate link, and then attempting to send it to everyone you know in .txt format isn’t likely to gain you anything; nor is it likely to multiply your efforts by inducing other marketers to redistribute the report for you.

Instead, you must start from a different point. You must determine what topic people are looking for related to your specific affiliate product.

For instance, do they need more information about the product itself? Do they need to know how to use that product effectively? Whatever your angle happens to be, make sure that it lines up with the wants of your customers and also ties in nicely with your affiliate product.

Next, create the actual viral report and embed your affiliate link in multiple places. If you have a site and a list, you may want to instead post a link to your list – and then use back-end mechanisms to make the sale.

Your last step is to actually ensure that this viral report:

Gets into as many people’s hands as humanly possible; and
Gets into the hands of people who will definitely redistribute it to others without charging any fees. This is where the art of free viral report distribution comes into play.

A good way to distribute your viral report is to create a buzz on forums. You will want to discuss some specific experience you had related to the topic you will cover in the report – and you will want to do it well in advance of your release date.

You will then want to start talking up your release – and also explain that the report will be completely free. Furthermore, you may want to even start locking people in for immediate distribution via email by getting them to join a list.

Once you have begun building a forum buzz for the report, you will want to go to e-zine owners in your particular niche and ask them if they are interested in getting a free report on whichever subject you are marketing. The distribution effect will multiply, subsequently multiplying your sales.

Planning Your Landing Page Theme

Gary Knox — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:40:59 +0000

Perhaps the most important part of creating a landing page is planning your landing page theme. How you select your theme, of course, will all depend on how you plan to generate traffic.

If you decide to generate traffic through search engine optimization, planning your landing page theme will entail finding phrases within your niche which have a high demand (aggregate search value) and a low supply (small amount of competing sites) and then creating multiple landing pages, each which is optimized around a different phrase.

If, on the other hand, you decide to generate traffic through pay per click (PPC) programs, such as Adwords, planning your landing page theme will again entail tuning a number of different pages to fit the keywords you are purchasing.

This is actually where most people fail when they create a landing page: they don’t tune it to fit a specific audience. For instance, in the case of a squeeze page for a newsletter, they might start a newsletter about toys, but they only create one landing page and send all traffic to it. This is a big mistake.

Chances are, if you create a quality product or newsletter, it can benefit a number of people. So why not communicate the exact benefits they will derive from subscribing or buying?

If, for instance, you have a newsletter about internet marketing and affiliate marketing, you should group it under the loose heading of “online marketing,” a visitor who is looking specifically for information about either internet marketing or affiliate marketing will click off your page if they don’t see the direct connection to the exact topic for which they were searching.

Instead, you will want to setup a page centered around internet marketing and a page centered around affiliate marketing. On each page, you will want to communicate the specific benefits to joining the list for each of those groups of visitors.

Going one step further, in addition to planning your landing page theme, if you are creating a landing page for a newsletter, you may also want to segment your list, so you can send information specifically about internet marketing to those who request it – and information about affiliate marketing to those who request it.

Recommended Top Affiliate Networks on the Internet

Gary Knox — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:45:35 +0000

When you decide to enter the world of affiliate marketing, there are a number of markets that are worthy of consideration. Here are three programs that have captured the attention of a lot of people, simply because of their stability and reliability.

Perhaps the best known of the three programs is ClickBank. There are a number of reasons why people find ClickBank such an attractive option when it comes to affiliate programs.

One aspect is that the revenue generated by any purchase made through the ad portal is credited to your account within two minutes of the completion of the transaction. Because ClickBank provides such a comprehensive tracking program, it is easy for affiliates to see how things are going, even if they run multiple sites as part of the program.

This handy software interface means that you do not have to set up a separate ClickBank account for every different program that you are working. Everything can be routed to a central ClickBank account, and the transaction detail will be plenty to help you sort the transactions into workable detail on how much you are making from each web site.

Along with the ads on your sites, you will also have a branded portal that will take visitors over to the ClickBank marketplace. Any items that are purchased at the marketplace through your portal will also be subject to a commission payment to you, and will reflect in your daily detail, just as any purchase from the affiliate ads would do.

This in effect allows you to maximize your earning potential using the resources that ClickBank provides. Payments are currently made by check, which are mailed out every two weeks.

PayDotCom is also an excellent choice as an affiliate network. Just as with ClickBank, PayDotCom provides an easy to use affiliate interface that allows you to view your numbers in real time. You can easily track such data as the number of clicks on the ads and the amount of commissions you have made by directing visitors over to the marketplace through the portal on your web site.

One of the advantages of PayDotCom is that this program will interface with your PayPal account, which means that vendors can send your monthly commission directly to your PayPal account. It is important to note that not all vendors will use PayPal as a payment method, so you may still receive payments by check as well.

Still, a number of the vendors do utilize PayPal, and that can often mean generated revenue without having to wait for a long time. Keep in mind that if you select PayPal as your preferred method of payment, you will be subject to any fees you normally incur when receiving funds.

In like manner, you will pay a small percentage of the payout on each purchase to PayDotCom as well. This program is easy to sign up with, and the staff does a great job of working with persons who are new to affiliate marketing.

Shareasale is a third option that is rapidly gaining recognition among affiliate marketers. As a program that is designed to match up to the content of your existing web site, Shareasale is free to join as an affiliate.

Basically, you can sign up for the program and then browse through a list of available merchant programs, selecting the ones that you believe will be of interest to the readers and visitors at your web site. The merchant list includes a wide variety of industry types and products, some of them digital, but many of them physical.
Earnings for the sale will vary. Some merchants prefer to use a flat rate for a sale, while others go with a percentage commission on the purchase amount. It is easy to determine which method is preferred while you are checking out the merchant listing.

Individuals that want to take a look at the merchant list before signing up for the program can search by category, by method of compensation, and by the newest programs added in the last twenty days.

As with all the best affiliate programs, Shareasale makes it easy to view your traffic and earnings around the clock. The reports are all web based, so you do not need any special software to load the reports.

Payments on generated revenue can be received via a check mailed to you, or by direct deposit to a bank account. At present, you have to earn a minimum of $50.00 USD during the previous calendar month in order to receive a payment. Any amount under that will roll over into the next payment period.

Does Your Online Business Offer a Service?

Gary Knox — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:40:01 +0000

Affiliate programs are a great way for business owners to increase their sales. Unfortunately, when it comes to affiliate programs, many business owners are misinformed. That misinformation often involves who can benefit from the use of an affiliate program. Many business owners mistakenly believe that you have to be the owner of an online retail store to have an affiliate program. This just simply is not true. In fact, if you own an online business that offers a collection of services, you can also benefit from the development of an affiliate program.

Online, there are a number of different businesses that offer services to the general public. These services will vary depending on the type of business it is. Popular business services include, but should not be limited to, debt consolidation, web hosting, web design, and freelance writing. These business owners, like yourself, may not be selling actual merchandise, but their business still relies on sales. The more their services are purchased, the more money the business will be able to make. If you are noticing a decrease in your service sales, you may want to think about starting your own affiliate program.

Affiliate programs are used to bring business owners, just like yourself, and website owners together. This joint collaboration will not only work out well for you and your business, but for the website owner that you are partnering with. This is because most website owners, who participate in an affiliate program, will be compensated for their work. This compensation often involves a percentage of the sale that they helped your business generate. However, to track this important information, you will need to find an affiliate tracking software program.

Affiliate tracking software is how affiliate programs are able to operate. In fact, without these programs, there may have never been the development of affiliate programs. This is because without tracking software it would be difficult, or even impossible, for most businesses to determine whether or not one of their affiliate websites helped to generate a sale. Therefore, if you are looking to develop an affiliate program for your business, you will need to decide on an affiliate tracking software program. Although this may seem like an easy decision, it isn’t always.

Online, you will find a large number of different affiliate tracking software programs. Many of these programs are designed and sold by different individuals and companies. Each of these programs is likely to include different services and features. These services and features are important because they will not only alert you to a quality software program, but one that you will actually be able to use and benefit from. To find one of these programs, you are advised to perform a standard internet search.

When performing a standard internet search, it is advised that you search with the words affiliate tracking software. Those search words should produce a fairly large number of results. In most cases, those results will direct you to affiliate tracking software that is available for sale. In addition to software that is available for sale, you may also find a number of other websites. These websites are likely to be resource guides for business owners, just like you. These websites often outline the importance of affiliate programs and how to make them a success. Since affiliate tracking software is an important component of that success, it is likely that you will find software reviews or software recommendations online. Even if you find affiliate software that has an outstanding review, you are still advised to examine the software for yourself.

As you can easily see, with the right software, anything is possible, especially when it comes to affiliate programs. To increase your business’s sales, even if you do not sell any merchandise, you are advised to consider starting your own affiliate program. It may end up being one of the best decisions ever made for you and your online business.

5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

Gary Knox — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:51:52 +0000

The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands. They have the desire of maneuvering the ships themselves, of being able to be the ones to take it anywhere they want to. Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the capacity to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to.

Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are succumbing to one of the most popular businesses around – affiliate marketing. It is because in this business, there are no bosses to order the employees around. There are no deadlines to meet and no clutter of work do to. One only needs to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in a business such as this, and he is bound to get what his heart ultimately desires.

Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing? What must one have within himself to be able to do well in this industry? There is a lot of competition involved in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm, one must be equipped with just the right stuff necessary to propel him forward. There are five things one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for in this business, and these five things are a must for him to possess to be able to stand out among the rest.

The very first quality one must possess if he wants to try his hand in affiliate marketing is the willingness to learn and be trained. Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff if one is not properly equipped, and he might get lost amidst a jungle of the unknown. Learning the tricks of the trade is also an important aspect of the game, and one’s willingness to know it all will give him far better advantages in the business than he could ever imagine.

The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem at all apparent. Although several months may pass without good news, it is important for one who has his foot in the industry to hold on and wait. It is this quality which would save him from giving up after investing a lot of himself in the business.

The third quality one must possess is self-determination. If one wants to conquer the affiliate marketing world, he must have the ability to push himself ahead. Never having to say die is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into scaling greater heights is an ability which would actually take an affiliate marketer there.

The fourth quality one must possess is discipline. If one knows how to teach himself to work everyday with all the energy he can muster, then he is close to achieving what he has set his heart to having in the first place.

The fifth and last quality one must possess is optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Neither should anyone influence his attitude toward the business, because once in it, it is a must for him to be the captain of his ship and the master of his soul.

The ingredients to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse and manifold, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in himself alone. It is he who has the capacity to do everything to be able to realize his prospects, and the desire which fuels his heart in doing so is the gasoline which should keep the engine going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s fate into his own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able to steer one’s ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on.

Build Your Own Mailing List… Even Though You’re an Affiliate!

Gary Knox — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:01:54 +0000

I want to share with you one of the biggest mistakes affiliates make. I want to share this with you so you wont make the same mistake:

The one major mistake many affiliates make is NOT setting up a list!

Affiliates will often send traffic that they generated to affiliate links, rather than a list. When they do this, they are unknowingly making a bet that visitor will buy on first contact. Unfortunately, this is generally not the case.

Visitors often need to be warmed up to a product – through the course of multiple visits and additional information – before they are willing to purchase from a person or a business. This is where building a list comes into play.

By building a list, affiliates can fix this problem. Additionally, they can retain traffic, warm it up, and then direct it to different purchases in the future. This means that it isn’t a one-shot deal: instead, they can attempt to sell the same person multiple products over the course of time.

Now, in order to do this successfully, the affiliate in question must obtain the necessary tools. An autoresponder is required and their are many available to you, whether paid or free, the choice is yours.

Now, in addition to obtaining the autoresponder service, you will need to setup your own site if you do not already own one. If you already own a related site, you can simply add your opt in form to a page on your existing site. If not, I suggest purchasing cheap domain and hosting and using this to host your list forms.

Once you have your site and your autoresponder setup, there are only two steps left: the first is building a course of some sort that is related to the affiliate products you wish to sell; and the second is creating an opt-in form that converts.

The first part is relatively easy. Start by determining your topic and then outline it over the course of five to seven days. Remember that everything should be written as if you are talking to a person, rather than as if you were writing a formal article.

If you do not feel comfortable writing these articles yourself, you can always hire a ghostwriter the price for each article will be dependant upon the size. Once you have created your autoresponder series, you will want to feed it into your autoresponder, setup advertisements in the text for the affiliate product you are planning to sell, and then create an opt-in form for your list.

Once you have setup your opt-in form, the only remaining step is to drive various traffic sources to your opt-in list, collect their email addresses – and then wait for the commissions to roll in!

Why Have a Mailing List?

Gary Knox — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:40:44 +0000

Before anything else, it is important for you to have good reasons to have your own mailing list in the first place. Consider the following:

If you join a Network Marketing company, your upline would require you to write a list of, say 100, names of people whom you know. The people you know are your prospects because they might be interested in becoming a consumer or starting their own Network Marketing business like you.

If you own a conventional B2B business, your target prospects are other businesses, and their information and contact details are likely to be found in the Yellow Pages or telephone directories. Thus the information found in Yellow Pages and the telephone directories are your list of prospects. So, why have your own mailing list? Because that is where your potential customers are!

The common mantra that most other Internet Marketers follow is “The money is in the list” and I tend to agree with them.

Of course, that is often true only if you harness your mailing list well and that your subscribers are responsive in the sense that they do bother reading your mails every time you send a broadcast to your mailing list. How responsive your mailing list subscribers are depends on how well you develop your relationship with them and how much you understand who your prospects are. Otherwise, do not hope on cashing in on your mailing list!

Regardless of what kind of Internet Business you are starting, having your own mailing list is a must. No exceptions.

I am aware, as I am sure that you are, that there are JV brokers who are making money simply by making successful Joint Venture deals between the product creators and Ezine publishers without having to have their own mailing list. But then, having your own mailing list gives you tremendous advantages that both JV brokers and product creators do not have.

For one, whenever you have a product or service you either own or are an affiliate for, you would not have to look further than your own mailing list thus you can be in profit within hours from the time you send out your endorsement letters.

The bigger and more responsive your list is, the more sales you will make and in a shorter period of time.

Secondly, having your own mailing list is more important than just having your own product. Even if you do not own your own product, you can still be an affiliate or Joint Venture for other people’s products.

For the third and most important reason: having your own mailing list gives you the opportunity to first prove your credibility to your subscribers through what you have to share with them in your E-zine!

Starting A New Affiliate Program Can Be A Challenge

Gary Knox — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:55:24 +0000

Want to start a new affiliate program but not sure whom to approach? Well, there are a number of ways in which you can get access to high quality, efficient affiliates – if you know where to look. Here’s a first hand primer on how you can get the best affiliates.

Before you actually start hunting for the perfect group of affiliates, you will need to tune your mind into thinking like one. That way you can prepare your affiliate program to cater to their requirements. It will also prevent you from receiving any surprises or shocks in future.

Most top quality super affiliates are concerned with the quality of the product they are promoting. They know that if they associate with a poor quality product they not only risk their reputation online but also earn less in terms of incentives.

That’s why should ensure that you have a solid, high quality product to promote. Make certain to establish a good incentive package that rewards affiliates well. Otherwise you risk losing out on top quality talent and just finding the mediocre affiliates. Make sure to have a good performance bonus package and perks as well.

No affiliate will want to join your affiliate program if they find you have never built affiliate sites! This is one of the first things most affiliates will ask you. So start building your own affiliate sites to get access to more qualified affiliates. You as an affiliate program owner will obviously need to track the affiliates’ performance. For this there are plenty of tracking software available. However, make sure to use software which doesn’t invade the affiliate’s privacy and that he or she is comfortable with.

Else you risk losing them in the long run. In order for your promotional efforts to be successful, you need to adequately train your affiliates. You also need to provide them with easy access to all possible promotional and advertising material. From banner ads, to textual copy, to links to specific sections of your site etc. – these will all help in propagating your product better. Get feedback.

It is always a good idea to ask for your affiliates’ feedback on a continual basis. That way you know your expectations and theirs and also get to understand their concerns. If they have any problems, you should be ready to sort them out. If you want access to high quality super affiliates, you’ll want to notch up your conversion rates on the site

Any serious affiliate worth his salt will hate being taken for a ride. If they find out your site’s sales conversions are very slow, they’ll abandon your program and move on to something more lucrative. Make sure you tweak and fine tune your site to improve sales conversion rates.

It maybe extremely time consuming but communicating with each affiliate program on an individual basis may actually work. You want your email to stand out favorably, consider contacting them personally and personalize the email content. This will help to ensure that your email is read rather than ignored or treated as spam. Also make sure to include the website owner’s name because you want to show that you made the effort to search for their name.

Using Traffic Exchanges to Promote Affiliate Programs

Gary Knox — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:59:58 +0000

If you are unfamiliar with exchanges, you will want to read this carefully:

One of the best ways in which you can promote affiliate programs is through various traffic exchanges. Almost all well-defined, robust niches on the Internet have some form of traffic exchange. For instance, casinos, gaming sites, niche forums, and Internet marketing sites all have some form of traffic exchange system. IM, in particular, has dozens of exchanges.

A traffic exchange can serve multiple functions; however, in most cases, it does two important things:

It allows you to surf sites, gain credits, and then cash in those credits; and
It allows you to put banners or dynamically-generated link boxes on your site that will generate credits, which you can then cash in. Cashing in credits, with most exchanges, results in a certain amount of traffic being drive to your site via the exchange site or via banners on other sites that are members of the exchange.

A good place to start when working with traffic exchanges is to determine which ones are most reputable and which ones have reasonable point systems. For instance, some traffic exchanges allow users to cheat and some have bad systems of exchange, which heavily favor paying members over non-members. You will want to find the best possible exchange given the amount of money you are willing to spend and the product you are marketing.

Once you have selected an optimal exchange, you will want to determine the best way in which you can use it to maximize the amount of high-quality traffic you extract from it.

You will want to answer the following questions to aid yourself in determining this: do I earn credits from impressions or clicks? And do I lose credits based on impressions or clicks?

This is important to ask, as different exchanges have different policies on this issue. If you lose credits based on impressions, you will want to make sure that you get the absolute largest amount of clicks per impressions. This will involve over-hyping your ads and creating flashy banners (if they allow them).

In contrast, if you are getting charged per click, you will want to make sure your ads ONLY appeal to the most interested buyers. Whichever route you take, make sure that it is matched up with a model for maximum revenue generation.

The last thing you will want to consider when using a traffic exchange is precisely what you should promote.

You already have a product in mind – probably an affiliate product – but how will you promote it?

Will you direct visitors to the affiliate page?

Will you direct them to a page on your site, which features the product?

Or will you direct them to an opt-in form, which will capture their information and then coax them into buying over a period of time?

Why You Need Affiliate Programs

Gary Knox — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:52:41 +0000

Internet marketing is such a large business today, and there are a so many varied chances for the online business to grow, that often it’s hard to find your way through. It is difficult for anyone just entering the world of online commerce to know what is and isn’t successful. The reading and research needed to develop a good online business strategy is so daunting that some people find it easier to just give up. There is one method of earning money online that takes little effort and has been proven to work. That is what this article is about.

This section concerns the online merchant selling products or services. Whatever amount of time you have been in business, the main thing you must accomplish is getting customers to visit your website. This is where affiliate programs enter the picture. The way it works for the seller of products or services is this: you sign up for an affiliate program, others sign up and place ads for your site somewhere on their site. They send you leads and you pay them for the leads. The wonderful thing about these programs is you only pay for the actual leads from the affiliate. Keep in mind that the person with nothing to sell will want to make money so will work harder to promote you. In this way, you will both benefit.

For the person who doesn’t have a product to sell there are unique benefits to signing on as an affiliate. First, you will be giving your visitors a chance to visit the merchant. You earn money by promoting your site, and then convincing visitors to go to the merchant. You earn money for the amount of leads or sales accomplished by your efforts. In addition, you have the chance to increase this traffic by having others advertise your site. Granted, you will end up paying these people to promote your site, but the rewards are well worth the money spent.

Affiliate programs are quite simple and inexpensive to run. Their business consists of generating customers for all of their members. For this reason, it is normally cheaper, and takes less effort, for you to sign onto an affiliate program than it would be for you to attempt to start your own affiliate program. In addition, with the large number of people these affiliate programs have signed up, you are in a position to reach a larger area of the market than you could ever accomplish by going it alone.